Required ResourcesRead/review the following resources for this activity: Minimum of 5 scholarly sources (This includes the sources from the annotated bibliography. Additional sources may be included a
GUN CONTROL DILEMMA ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 7
Gun Control Dilemma Annotated Bibliography
Vincent Oluwakorede
Chamberlain University
ETHC 445N – August 10th, 2019
Gun Control Dilemma Annotated Bibliography
Introduction
Gun control has been a controversial issue in the United States. However, not much has been done regarding implementing gun laws to address the matter. Due to many incidents of mass shootings and increased gun crimes in the United States, just in the case of the recent shootings in the news, there has been a group that advocates for the introduction of strict gun control laws and another group that oppose the laws. According to Kant, the rightness or wrongness of actions does not depend on their consequences but on whether they fulfill our duty. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to recommend some solutions that will push gun control laws and public opinion in the right direction. (Ruggiero, 2012).
Annotation
Davidson, O. G. (2008). Under fire: The NRA and the battle for gun control. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. Database: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
According to Davidson’s book titled Under fire: The NRA and the battle for gun control, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has been influential for more than three decades in defeating almost every important legislative attempt aimed at controlling firearms due to its political clout offered by their activist members whose number has been close to 3 million. However, the number of these members has been reducing in the recent years meaning that the influence of the association is going down, and this can be seen from several cases that the association has lost in courts. The members are believed to be about 2.6 million.
The problem raised in the article is that there seems to be a relationship between guns, crime, and drugs, yet NRA continues to lobby strongly in support of firearms possession. I agree
with the author. More guns in the hands of the people increase the rates of crime. A quotation to be used in the final research is whether NRA is a super-patriotic defender of cherished American
values. This article is important in my research project because it will help in explaining the harms caused by gun and impact of NRA.
DeGrazia, D. (2014) Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal; Mar2014, Vol. 24 Issue 1, p1-25, 25p Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press., Database: Complementary Index
This article looks at arguments of the group supporting gun control and a group opposing the control. After carrying out extensive research on the issue, the authors concluded that a middle ground should be reached by these different groups. The authors further argue that a policy should be created to allow only people with special needs to have guns for self-protection. This is a good argument, which I support. The article assumed that there is a legal and moral right to private gun ownership.
Gun issues inevitably become legal issues because the use (and misuse) of guns is
a subject of both criminal and civil law. People with special needs should be the only people allowed to carry guns and only after rigorous assessment. Utilitarian ethics suggests that an act would be considered ethical if it increases utility or increase benefits to many people and reduce harm. A quote that should be studied in the research project is "moderate gun control" to determine whether it will be effective. This article will help in the paper since it offers a solution to the problem.
Lott, J. R. (2013). More guns, less crime: Understanding crime and gun control laws. University of Chicago Press.
In this book More Guns, Less Crime, Lott looks at crime and its effects. A question asked by Lott is, "does concealed carry affect the crime right, and if so how"? This is a good question that the research project should attempt to answer since once it answered, it can give way forward in the issue of gun control dilemma. Lott gathered a large amount of statistical data related to crime from different cities in the United States that help him to answer the question he has asked. Immense data used by the author helps to understand profoundly whether more or fewer guns are the solution to increased crime in the United States. I agree with the author.
People should first understand the significant contributors to crime in the country, and then determine if more or fewer guns will help to solve the gun control dilemma. What makes this book to be important in my research project is that it has proven data that can help in determining whether gun control will be effective or not.
Peters, J. A., Cook, P. J., & Ludwig, J. (2005). Gun Crime and Gun Control: The Hawaiian
Experience. U. Chi. Legal F., 55.
Peters, Cook, and Ludwig look at the problem of gun control from the point of view of the Hawaiian experience. Factors that influence people to use guns to commit crimes are considered by these researchers. Among the major arguments in the paper is that human error is a major contributor to the misuse of guns. The authors make use of economic and sociological perspective in addressing the issue. I agree with the argument of the author that human error may play a role in gun misuse, and gun control or better screening can help reduce these errors. A quotation to be used in my research is that it is available evidence enough to determine the effectiveness of gun control measures.
This article is important in this research project because it discusses how gun control measure has been effective in Hawaii, and such measures can be studied and applied in other areas, such as the United States. Gun control laws are effective in some areas. Such areas can be used as reference points. For instance, in Hawaii, all guns do not have to be registered. Policymakers in other jurisdictions can examine their crime data and use the data to come up with an effective solution to the gun control dilemma.
Spitzer, R. J. (1998). The Politics of Gun Control. Edition: 2nd ed. New York, N.Y.: Chatham House Publishing. 1998. eBook., Database: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost).
Spitzer talks about latest development related to American gun policy together with many shooting incidents seen in the United States, such as Orlando nightclub shootings. The author argues that these many shooting incidents spark a wave of gun control legislation at national, state, and local levels. The gun control battle is, above all, a struggle over public policy. As the many elements and cases of the gun issue analyzed in the article reveal, the gun policy struggle is one in which elephantine political forces battle over policy mice. This conclusion is surely no surprise to anyone with a passing acquaintance with the gun issue. At the same time, only a full understanding of the policy issue's scope and its political consequences can hope to yield any sort of policy synthesis.
I concur with the author when it comes to this argument. The many shootings make people to reconsider gun control legislation in the country. A quotation to be studied further in the research is whether there is a link between gun ownership and gun deaths. This article is important to this research because it gives details information linking gun ownership with many incidents of crime in the country.
References
Davidson, O. G. (2008). Under fire: The NRA and the battle for gun control. Iowa City:
University of Iowa Press. Database: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
DeGrazia, D. (2014) Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal; Mar2014, Vol. 24 Issue 1, p1-25, 25p
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press., Database: Complementary Index
Lott, J. R. (2013). More guns, less crime: Understanding crime and gun control laws. University
of Chicago Press.
Peters, J. A., Cook, P. J., & Ludwig, J. (2005). Gun Crime and Gun Control: The Hawaiian
Experience. U. Chi. Legal F., 55.
Spitzer, R. J. (1998). The Politics of Gun Control. Edition: 2nd ed. New York, N.Y.:
Chatham House Publishing. 1998. eBook., Database: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost).